1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reproducing apparatus, and more particularly, to a technique for transmitting information data that is reproduced from a storage medium to an external apparatus to record the data onto another storage medium.
2. Related Background Art
There have been apparatuses such as digital cameras and video cameras that record/reproduce captured image data as digital data to/from a memory card and/or a magnetic tape. More recently, disk video cameras have also emerged that record/reproduce taken image data on/from an optical disk such as a digital versatile disk (DVD) (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-095164, for example).
Since optical disks or memory cards used with such disk video cameras are relatively expensive, users may copy recorded image data to a bulk recording medium and then erase the data on a disk so that use the disk repetitively.
More specifically, one of possible ways is to transmit image data recorded on an optical disk or a memory card to a personal computer (PC) to save the data on a hard disk drive (HDD) or an optical disk of a large capacity that is contained in or mounted to the PC. In such a case, the user connects the PC with the digital/video camera with a high-speed serial interface such as USB and IEEE1394 interfaces. And the user transfers data recorded on a memory card or an optical disk to the bulk recording unit that is contained in or mounted to the PC. Once saving is complete, the user erases the data recorded on the rewritable optical disk or memory card in the disk video camera and then uses the video camera.
One way to erase data on a disk is to execute erasion through operation of a menu provided on a disk video camera itself. Another way is to select a menu for erasion in an application on a PC to erase data on an optical disk or memory card that is mounted to a video camera.
As mentioned above, when capturing a picture with a video camera, one has to erase data recorded on a disk and perform formatting (i.e., initialization) for making the disk writable.
The initialization can be done in a number of ways depending on the type of disk medium. For example, all data on a disk may be erased or only data in some administration information areas may be erased. When only partial data is erased, recording of data onto the disk becomes possible, however, functions may be limited compared to complete formatting. On the other hand, complete formatting has no such limitation although it takes longer time than partial formatting.
One cannot use a camera to photograph while initialization is carried out on a video camera. Thus, when one comes to wish to take images using another disk after starting initialization, he/she need to stop the initialization such as by shutting off a power of the apparatus.
As described above, there is a problem of necessity to perform initialization later again in order to record data on a disk initialization of which has been interrupted in such a manner.